A Different Door, A Different Redhead
by Ellen Kuhfeld
Summary: This plot cabbit seized me, and I wasn't about to let it go - if my muse isn't talking to me, a cabbit will have to do. I'm trying to tell the tale in drabbles, so I can get chapters finished before my slackoff muse notices and goes on strike. "Halloween Invasion" is the first true 100-word drabble. I don't own Harry Potter; and I pity anyone who tries to own Washuu.
1. A Different Door, A Different Redhead

"I'll teach you to behave!" Vernon Dursley shouted as he backhanded Harry Potter and sent his broken glasses flying. "No more food for you, you freak!"

He grabbed Harry by the scruff of his neck, dragged him to the storage closet beneath the stairs, threw him in, slammed the door, and padlocked it.

 _That's strange_ , he thought. _That door looks a bit different today._

Harry rolled over with a groan. _That's strange,_ he thought _. It isn't dark in here_.

He rose to his hands and knees, and spit blood on the floor. The closet was bright, and stretched into the distance as far as he could see. Without his glasses, that wasn't far, but the closet under the stairs was definitely larger. It was filled with machines. A small girl, with wild red hair, was sitting in mid-air typing. She looked over at him, stood, and hurried to his side.

"I don't like the looks of that blood," she said. "What happened?"

Harry told her, and his world was never the same again. Neither was the Dursleys'.


	2. Soul in a Bottle

Harry slept in the healing tank while Washuu went over his scans. _Broken bones, scars, malnutrition – the tank can fix them right up. Might as well correct his vision while we're at it._

She examined Harry's energy patterns. "That's a nasty little clump of evil in his forehead," she murmured

Two puppets appeared on her shoulders. "What will the greatest scientist in the universe do?" one asked.

"Experiment!" the other replied. The puppets waved flags, then disappeared.

Washuu rummaged in storage for a large forcefield tweezer and bottle. She reached into Harry's forehead, pulled out a writhing, cursing clot of black smoke, stuffed it in the force bottle, and closed it.

In the roiling smoke, red eyes glared "You have power," it hissed. "Join me, and we can rule the world."

Washuu smiled and patted the bottle gently. "You're going to rule the world? You're not even all there! And I've got you in a bottle."

The smoke glowered. "More respect, child. I am Lord Voldemort, the most powerful wizard in the world."

"And I'm Washuu, the greatest scientist in the universe. Think of the fun we can have together!" She smirked. "You're just a fragment of a soul. I'll bet the rest of you is out there, just waiting to cause trouble."

She suddenly had a red-and-white ball in her raised hand. "Gotta catch 'em all!"


	3. Back to Privet Drive

**Back to Privet Drive**

Harry woke as the – fluid – drained down around him. He felt wonderful. Fresh clothes, his size, were waiting for him.

He toweled the fluid off, then dressed. There was a mirror, and in it he looked as wonderful as he felt. He reached for his glasses, then realized he didn't need them.

A note was where the clothes had been.

 _Dear Harry,_

 _I was horrified to see the shape you were in – broken bones, contusions, concussions, malnutrition, and somehow there was a chunk of evil embedded in your forehead. I took it out._

 _The tank healed your injuries, fed you up, and fixed your eyes. Those Dursleys have a lot to answer for. So I speeded up your healing, and hardened your body a bit. Then I went upstairs in the night, and weakened them. Not terribly, mind you, but they'll have a harder time hurting you now._

 _I'm off catching chunks of evil. I'll see you when I get back. The door under the stairs will take you to my lab, but the Dursleys will just find the storage room._

 _Washuu-chan_

Harry read the note twice, shook his head, and went out through his door. (Somehow, the lock didn't work.)

Dudley saw him, and immediately punched him.

Harry stood there. "I'm sorry, Dudley, were you saying something?"


	4. Forever and Ever

**Forever and Ever**

Washuu faced eight force-domes holding a man in a blue turban, a large snake, a book, a chalice, a diadem, a locket, and a ring - and Harry Potter's former hitchhiker.

"I suppose you're wondering why I called you all here today," she said with a smirk.

The domes sweatdropped. The man in the large dome failed to apparate.

Washuu faced Harry's cloud of smoke. "You asked me to join you in conquering the Earth. No _way_ was I bargaining with a sliver of a man."

She looked at the man in the turban. "Want rid of your passenger?" He cursed her.

"So be it."

She typed on her console. The floors of six domes rose, passing through the items. Black clouds of soul fragment were compressed into the top of the dome, leaving the jewelry shining and the snake dead. Domes merged until there were two, one filled with smoke and one with the man. "Any last request?" she asked him. He cursed again.

And then there was one, who took his turban off.

"Curse you! Those horcruxes gave me immortality. As long as one piece remained, I couldn't die. Now you've taken that away."

Washuu waved dismissively. "I'm immortal, and it's sad watching your friends age and die. I mostly hang out with Juraians - they last. Earth folk? Maybe a hundred years. You'd regret it. I can give you immortality, but are you sure you want it?"

Voldemort made his biggest mistake. "Yes."

The dome turned silvery.

"Ryo-Ohki? This man is in eternal time-freeze. Would you throw him into a black hole for me?"

"Miyah!"


	5. Discipline?

Discipline?

The Dursleys weren't happy. Petunia thought Harry was doing well with the yard and the cooking, but she didn't like his attitude. And where had he gotten those clothes? Vernon had a hard time _finding_ Harry, let alone disciplining him. Dudley's Harry-hunting wasn't fun any more.

They locked him under the stairs all weekend. He came out well-dressed and cheerful. They didn't feed him; he didn't care. The freakishness they were trying to beat out of him was winning.

A letter came, in a parchment envelope. It said he was a wizard, had been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and they awaited his reply by owl. He scrawled on the letter that he didn't have an owl, put it back in the envelope, wrote "Return to Sender," and replaced it in the mailbox.

Two days later a dour Scotswoman knocked on the door. Petunia took one look, and thought, _Now_ _ **that**_ _is a disciplinarian._ Freakish ways or not, getting Harry out of the house nine months of the year was worth it.

She let the Scotswoman take Harry away. It wouldn't cost _Petunia_ anything.


	6. Wandless

**Wandless**

The noise reached even to Washuu's lab. She frowned, and went to her door. The Dursleys were arguing again.

" **Wizard!** " Vernon bellowed.

"That woman will take him away _nine months of the year!_ "

"And he'll come back **even more of a freak!** "

The door was jerked open, and Vernon threw Harry into the closet. A small but powerful hand came out of nowhere, grabbed him, and pulled him into the lab. The door slammed. When Petunia opened it, it was the closet under the stairs – the _empty_ closet.

Washuu looked at Vernon, sprawled on the floor. "Purple isn't good. If you aren't careful, you'll have a stroke." She smiled alarmingly at him. "It could be arranged."

She crossed her arms. "But you have to be around to raise Harry." Vernon fell into blackness as robot hands grasped him, stripped him, and put him in the bio-tank.

Washuu shook her head. "He's dangerous, and this can't be healthy for him. I'll dial his aggression way back, and fix his weight problem while we're at it. And Ryo-ohki will stay with you, just in case."

The cabbit hopped up. "Miyah!"

After a peculiar month, during which Vernon quietly lost weight, the Dursleys took Harry off to Kings Cross station. He boarded the express, found a compartment with some other cheerful-looking firsties, and settled in, with a cabbit on his shoulder.

Ron Weasley was showing everybody his rat when the door slid open. A sullen blonde boy peered in, two gorillas at his side. His eyes widened, and he pointed his wand at Ryo-ohki.

"What's that?" he asked.

Ryo-ohki leaned forward, and ate the front half of his wand.

"She's a cabbit," Harry said. "They're very protective. And they love to eat."


	7. Halloween Invasion

**Halloween Invasion**

There'd been a fuss about Ryo-ohki eating Malfoy's wand, but she was so lovable nobody got extreme.

Now it was Halloween, and the tables groaned with food. Ron was doing his best to eat it all, but Harry managed to get some too. Then he noticed a ripple in his pumpkin juice. He listened, and heard heavy footfalls rapidly approaching. The other students began to notice.

Hagrid burst into the dining hall. "The dungeons!" he cried. "Me blast-ended skrewts got loose, and they're in the dungeons!"

He sheepishly stood at the head table, before Dumbledore. "Thought you ought to know."


	8. Carrots

Ryo-ohki was a cheerful and curious cabbit. All year she'd watched as the Beard tried to manipulate Harry into going through that door on the third floor. Now the Grease had gone through, and come back dog-bit.

Inquiring cabbits want to know!

She turned intangible, and hopped through the door. A monstrous three-headed dog, barking and snarling, was upon her in a flash. My, intangibility was useful!

The dog was guarding a trapdoor. She slipped down through it, and landed in a soft patch of Devil's Claw. It tried to snare her, so she ate it. _Ptui! Carrots were much better._

She wandered down the obvious trail, hopping through all sorts of interesting dangers, until she found herself standing in front of a mirror. She looked into it.

Carrots! Heaps and piles of carrots! And on top of the pile, Ken-ohki was smiling at her! She leaped into the mirror (oh, she _loved_ that intangibility) and snuggled up to Ken-ohki. The two began to devour carrots.

After Hogwarts let out for the summer, Dumbledore shook his head sadly, and went to recover the Philosopher's Stone. The mirror of Erised was completely empty. _SOMEBODY had gotten the stone!_

Washuu looked askance at Ryo-ohki. "You're pregnant," she said. "Where on Earth did you find a boy cabbit?"

Ryo-ohki just smiled, twitched her nose, and turned another stone into a pile of carrots. She was eating for two, after all.


End file.
